'Round About Midnight

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'Round About Midnight
'Round About Midnight cover
Studio album by Miles Davis
Recorded October 27, 1955 - June 5, 1956
Genre Cool jazz
Length 38:47
Label Columbia Records
Professional reviews
Miles Davis chronology
Workin'
(1956)		 'Round About Midnight
(1956)		 Miles Ahead
(1957)


'Round About Midnight is an album released in 1956 (see 1956 in music) by jazz musician Miles Davis.

Contents

[edit] History

At the Newport Jazz Festival in 1955, Davis performed the song "'Round Midnight" as part of an all-star jam session, with the song's composer Thelonious Monk, along with Connie Kay and Percy Heath of the Modern Jazz Quartet, Zoot Sims, and Gerry Mulligan. Davis's solo received an extremely positive reception from many jazz fans, and critics. It was viewed as a significant comeback and indication of a healthy, drug-free Miles (he had in fact been free from heroin addiction for well over a year). Miles's response to this performance was typically laconic: "I don't know what they're talking about. It's like I just came back from the moon. I just played the way I always do." George Avakian of Columbia Records was in the audience, and his brother Aram persuaded him that he ought to sign Davis to the label. Davis was eventually signed to Columbia Records, and was able to form his famous "first great quintet" with John Coltrane on saxophone. 'Round About Midnight was to be his first album for his new label.

Davis was still under contract to Prestige Records, but had an agreement that he could record material for Columbia to release after the expiry of his Prestige contract. The recording dates for the album were at Columbia Records studios, the first session was on October 27, 1955 at Studio D, during which the tracks "Tadd's Delight", "Dear Old Stockholm" and the soon-to-be standard "Bye Bye Blackbird" were recorded (this is the first studio recording of the quintet). The remainder of the album was recorded during sessions on June 5 and September 10, 1956 at Columbia's 30th Street Studio. During the same period, the Miles Davis Quintet was also recording albums to fulfil the contract with Prestige.

On release, 'Round About Midnight received an average reception. Ralph Berton of The Record Changer described it as "orthodox, middle-of-the-road conservative progressive jazz." To this day, the editors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD continues to dismiss this record as a footnote to the Prestige contractual obligation sessions (eventually released as the albums Miles, Relaxin', Workin', Steamin', and Cookin') stating that they "...fail to cast quite the consistent spell which the Prestige recordings do."

Considered by most to be one of the pinnacles of the hard bop era, the song selection on Midnight represents a summation of the earlier bebop era, with the performances tempered by Davis' inherent lyricism but rooted in the new style as promoted by hard bop pioneers Art Blakey and Horace Silver with the Jazz Messengers, and the Max Roach / Clifford Brown quintet, in 1956 featuring ex-Davis foil Sonny Rollins.

It should be noted that Coltrane had yet to become an iconic figure in jazz history, his presence in the Davis Quintet a let-down to many in lieu of the aforementioned Rollins. His style, while embryonically frenetic and searching, was not quite the sheets of sound approach celebrated later in the decade. In April 1957 Coltrane's heroin use would lead to his leaving Davis and working with Monk, and under Monk's tutelage the saxophonist's playing style solidified considerably.

In 2001, Columbia released a reissue of the original album with four bonus tracks, comprising master takes of all the tunes recorded at the three sessions (alternates are available on the box set The Complete Miles Davis with John Coltrane). A further "Legacy Edition" reissue in 2005 added a bonus disc with the Newport performance of "'Round Midnight" and a 1956 recording of a concert by the quintet (featuring the tunes "Chance It", "Walkin'", "It Never Entered My Mind", "Woody 'n' You" and "Salt Peanuts").

[edit] Track listing

  1. "'Round Midnight" (Bernie Hanighen, Thelonious Monk, Cootie Williams) – 6:00
  2. "Ah-Leu-Cha" (Charlie Parker) – 5:55
  3. "All of You" (Cole Porter) – 7:05
  4. "Bye Bye Blackbird" (Mort Dixon, Ray Henderson) – 7:59
  5. "Tadd's Delight" (Tadd Dameron) – 4:33
  6. "Dear Old Stockholm" (Traditional, arranged by Stan Getz) – 7:55

Bonus Tracks added to Columbia Legacy 2001 reissue:

  1. "Two Bass Hit" (Dizzy Gillespie, John Lewis) – 3:47 (October 1955 session)
  2. "Little Melonae" (Jackie McLean) – 7:24 (October 1955 session)
  3. "Budo" (Miles Davis, Bud Powell) – 4:17 (October 1955 session)
  4. "Sweet Sue, Just You" (Will Harris, Victor Young) – 3:39 (September 1956 session)

Bonus Tracks added to second disc of Columbia Legacy Edition reissue of 2005, all except the first live from the Pacific Jazz Festival in February 1956:

  1. "'Round Midnight" – 6:00 (live at the Newport Jazz Festival 1955)
  2. Introduction by Gene Norman – 1:35
  3. "Chance It (Max Making Wax)" (Oscar Pettiford) – 4:33
  4. "Walkin'" (Richard Carpenter) – 10:02
  5. Dialogue Gene Norman and Miles Davis – 0:27
  6. "It Never Entered My Mind" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart) – 5:17
  7. "Woody 'n' You" (Dizzy Gillespie) – 5:45
  8. "Salt Peanuts" (Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke) – 4:33
  9. "Closing Theme" (Davis) – 0:27

[edit] Credits

[edit] Performers

[edit] Other personnel

  • Michael Cuscuna - Reissue Producer
  • Howard Fritzson - Reissue Art Director
  • Don Hunstein - Photography
  • Frank Laico - Engineer, Original Recordings
  • Teo Macero - Mastering
  • Randall Martin - Reissue Design
  • Ray Moore - Engineer
  • Seth Rothstein - Project Director
  • Dennis Stock - Photography
  • Mark Wilder - Engineer, Mastering
  • Aram Avakian - Photography
  • George Avakian - Producer, Liner Notes, Original Recording Producer
  • Bob Belden - Reissue Producer

[edit] References

[edit] See also

Albums recorded by the same personnel in 1955-1956:

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